1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the management of messaging platforms that are interconnected to form a wide-area network.
2. Background
A messaging system as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,540 to Greco et. al., enables a user to receive messages having a voice mail format either through a telephone or through a personal computer (xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d) coupled to a local area network (LAN). It also provides a graphical user interface (xe2x80x9cGUIxe2x80x9d) on the PC to select which voice mail messages to receive and in what order. However, the messaging system in Greco is a stand-alone system and thus, does not provide the advantages of linking to other similar messaging systems or of using interconnected messaging systems to provide distributed messaging.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to integrate messaging platforms distributed on a switchable communications backbone such as the Internet, or equivalent network such as a wide area corporate intranet, and connected to different area networks so as to provide global yet low cost messaging.
Moreover, it would be desirable to monitor each messaging platform and administer the addition, deletion, and updating of a messaging platform in response to a status change to the messaging platform so that each messaging platform is aware of the status change.
In addition, it would be desirable to minimize the complexity that would result if every independent owner of a messaging platform had to contract with every other independent owner of a messaging platform in order to deliver a message within a certain service area served by a messaging platform by imposing a cost tracking scheme on each messaging platform that uses the switched backbone to send a message to another messaging platform for delivery to the service area.
Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a feature that manages a status message destined for a messaging platform which does not have an active connection to the switched backbone so that the status message is promptly delivered to the messaging platform the next time it re-establishes a connection to the switched network and results in a message confirming delivery of the status message to the messaging platform.
Last, it would be desirable to include an information delivery service that delivers a message from at least one source outside of the messaging network to a subscriber via the subscriber""s messaging platform regardless of whether the messaging platform has a dedicated or dial-up connection.
The present invention manages a messaging network having messaging platforms interconnecting through a switched backbone such as the Internet. Each messaging platform may be independently owned and may also connect to local networks that may be independently owned. A master platform maintains a master global routing table having a messaging platform profile for every messaging platform established on the messaging network. Each messaging platform holds a global routing table which includes a current version of the master global routing table. The master platform monitors each messaging platform on the messaging network and administers the addition, deletion, and updating of messaging platforms by modifying its master global routing table in the event the master platform encounters changes to the status of the messaging platforms. In the event that the master global routing table is updated, the global routing table held by each messaging platform is also updated, ensuring version consistency between the master global routing table and each of the global routing tables. This enables the master platform and each messaging platform to determine the operational status of another messaging platform.
Also, since the messaging platforms may be independently owned and are designed to receive and deliver messages through a variety of networks that may impose surcharges, the present invention also provides a cost tracking feature when delivering messages between messaging platforms that are owned by different entities. This avoids the need for use agreements between messaging platform owners and owners of networks which are connected to the messaging platforms. The cost for each network message delivery is measured in tokens. Each messaging platform on the messaging network has a token pool. Each owner of a messaging platform is charged for the cost of the tokens. Each time a network message delivery is initiated, the originating messaging platform debits a selected number of tokens from its token pool, while each time an inbound network message delivery occurs, a selected number of tokens are credited to the token pool held by a target messaging platform.
The present invention also includes a post office function that enables a master platform to receive and store a status message destined for a messaging platform which does not have an active connection to the messaging network or is in a non-operational state. The present invention also includes an information delivery service that delivers a message from at least one source outside of the messaging network to a subscriber via the subscriber""s messaging platform regardless of whether the messaging platform has a dedicated or dial-up connection.